Sony and The BDA Enter "Phase: HYDRA" - To Seed Online Forums?
An informal report on the latest BDA meeting in Fukuoka appears to have let the proverbial “cat out of the bag”! It seems that mention was made, at the meeting, that the BDA have entered what they have endearingly called “Phase HYDRA”!! What, pray tell, is “Phase HYDRA”? A new two-headed BD player profile? A new Dual-format player from the BDA? A bird.. a plane? NO!! It’s apparently a new “viral marketing” campaign underway that apparently seeks to “seed” (or perhaps “stuff”) the online techie forums with fake bluray supporters – hired guns, if you will – who are talking up Bluray and it’s supposed “imminent victory” in the format war.
To quote the AVSforum post from the unofficial, but illustrious, undercover reporter: “-- The BDA has formally kicked off a new PR campaign called "Phase Hydra"....its purpose is to seed "high profile" forums with Blu-ray advocates and target bloggers to promote Blu-ray to get the word out to the world...the campaign will also focus on "smaller, independent studio issues"...
What we have here, perhaps, is a blatant failure to communicate… honestly, that is. Well, quite naturally, the online forums are in an uproar over this issue. The thought of having paid imposters, who are really just commercial shills, wandering through the various discussions on the forums and posting false opinions and disinformation has really gotten the goat of various respected, senior members of these communities.
So what does “Phase HYDRA” signify? Is it “watering” the seeds of doubt in the forums? Is it posters who appear to be one thing (one face) but are actually another? Is it like gas-phase hydration, which requires that a certain critical density of molecules be present in order to be successful? Is it the akin to the growth of a plant hydra? Who knows what clever meaning was in the mind of whoever thought up the rather incriminating name, but one poster online speculated: “Heh, I dunno, but I assume the analogy is to sprout the illusion of many heads/mouthpieces (consumers/users) from a single body (BDA/Sony).”
I wish I could show you the AVSforum thread opened for the discussion but, sadly, it got rather pointed and was deleted by the responsible AVS moderators! But discussion is present on other forums still, here, and here, and here.
Now to be fair, I must add that the Bluray voices on the forums have gone into full damage-control spin mode on this issue. They are effectively denying that it is as bad as it looks on the surface, claiming that it’s just a little PR campaign to get the word out on the forums, and that there is nothing sinister about codeword: “Phase HYDRA” at all… (cough********cough). A Sony insider on AVSforum said “Part of the presentation in question covers the importance of attending to all the communications on Blu-ray, including forums like this one.”
I think you’ll have to make your OWN judgement on this particular brouhaha, I’m afraid. I have. In my opinion it is just MORE underhanded and devious tactics, the end result of which is likely to be more blatant and antagonistic attacks on HD DVD supporters within the forums, under the guise of new members who have suddenly appeared since September/October 06, up until April 07, with very aggressive BD-fensive posting styles. Various forums have been targeted, and I’ve noticed it on Gametrailers.com and other forums also.
Fortunately, these hired guns are quite easy to spot for those who are regular visitors to the forums – many of them stick out like sore thumbs. Though they often start their “careers” on the forum with a few innocuous posts in less relevant topics like “WERD! Like what concerts are you guys looking forward to on DVD, man!”, they quickly gravitate to the HD/BD action and start lobbing grendades.
Be on the alert for these shills, and don’t hesitate to report your suspicions to the site moderators. In the last five days alone, I personally have noticed about 20 people who have suddenly who just “popped” up in this fashion – on AVSforum alone! Some of them registered in September, most in 2007, but all recently became very active.
If in doubt, it’s probably not your imagination…If you spend time in the forums, get busy against these hired guns. Let's show them that true supporters are better than paid ones.
http://www.campaignhd.com/407_Phase_Hydra.html
An informal report on the latest BDA meeting in Fukuoka appears to have let the proverbial “cat out of the bag”! It seems that mention was made, at the meeting, that the BDA have entered what they have endearingly called “Phase HYDRA”!! What, pray tell, is “Phase HYDRA”? A new two-headed BD player profile? A new Dual-format player from the BDA? A bird.. a plane? NO!! It’s apparently a new “viral marketing” campaign underway that apparently seeks to “seed” (or perhaps “stuff”) the online techie forums with fake bluray supporters – hired guns, if you will – who are talking up Bluray and it’s supposed “imminent victory” in the format war.
To quote the AVSforum post from the unofficial, but illustrious, undercover reporter: “-- The BDA has formally kicked off a new PR campaign called "Phase Hydra"....its purpose is to seed "high profile" forums with Blu-ray advocates and target bloggers to promote Blu-ray to get the word out to the world...the campaign will also focus on "smaller, independent studio issues"...
What we have here, perhaps, is a blatant failure to communicate… honestly, that is. Well, quite naturally, the online forums are in an uproar over this issue. The thought of having paid imposters, who are really just commercial shills, wandering through the various discussions on the forums and posting false opinions and disinformation has really gotten the goat of various respected, senior members of these communities.
So what does “Phase HYDRA” signify? Is it “watering” the seeds of doubt in the forums? Is it posters who appear to be one thing (one face) but are actually another? Is it like gas-phase hydration, which requires that a certain critical density of molecules be present in order to be successful? Is it the akin to the growth of a plant hydra? Who knows what clever meaning was in the mind of whoever thought up the rather incriminating name, but one poster online speculated: “Heh, I dunno, but I assume the analogy is to sprout the illusion of many heads/mouthpieces (consumers/users) from a single body (BDA/Sony).”
I wish I could show you the AVSforum thread opened for the discussion but, sadly, it got rather pointed and was deleted by the responsible AVS moderators! But discussion is present on other forums still, here, and here, and here.
Now to be fair, I must add that the Bluray voices on the forums have gone into full damage-control spin mode on this issue. They are effectively denying that it is as bad as it looks on the surface, claiming that it’s just a little PR campaign to get the word out on the forums, and that there is nothing sinister about codeword: “Phase HYDRA” at all… (cough********cough). A Sony insider on AVSforum said “Part of the presentation in question covers the importance of attending to all the communications on Blu-ray, including forums like this one.”
I think you’ll have to make your OWN judgement on this particular brouhaha, I’m afraid. I have. In my opinion it is just MORE underhanded and devious tactics, the end result of which is likely to be more blatant and antagonistic attacks on HD DVD supporters within the forums, under the guise of new members who have suddenly appeared since September/October 06, up until April 07, with very aggressive BD-fensive posting styles. Various forums have been targeted, and I’ve noticed it on Gametrailers.com and other forums also.
Fortunately, these hired guns are quite easy to spot for those who are regular visitors to the forums – many of them stick out like sore thumbs. Though they often start their “careers” on the forum with a few innocuous posts in less relevant topics like “WERD! Like what concerts are you guys looking forward to on DVD, man!”, they quickly gravitate to the HD/BD action and start lobbing grendades.
Be on the alert for these shills, and don’t hesitate to report your suspicions to the site moderators. In the last five days alone, I personally have noticed about 20 people who have suddenly who just “popped” up in this fashion – on AVSforum alone! Some of them registered in September, most in 2007, but all recently became very active.
If in doubt, it’s probably not your imagination…If you spend time in the forums, get busy against these hired guns. Let's show them that true supporters are better than paid ones.
http://www.campaignhd.com/407_Phase_Hydra.html
